Tencent Pictures to Invest $295 Million in Production (Report)

Tencent Pictures, one of the film units of Chinese social media giant Tencent, plans to spend more than $295 million (RMB2 billion) on film production in China and Hollywood.

The one year old unit recently announced its first ever movie production slate and a deal with Hollywood’s David Goyer. The value of the planned investments for this year and next was reported by Bloomberg. The figure is understood to exclude the cost of acquiring intellectual property or content for the company’s streaming businesses.

Tencent Pictures’ 21 title production and investment slate includes: “The Tibet Code,” based on a series of best-selling period fantasy novels by He Ma, to be developed as both TV series and video games; films by Japan’s Takashige Ichise and China’s Lu Chuan.

Tencent Pictures was previously a part of the Chinese contingent in Legendary Entertainment’s “Warcraft” and it announced that it will also on board Legendary’s “Kong Skull Island.”

Tencent also recently bought a small minority stake in Hollywood’s STX Entertainment.